The Smartest Guys In The Room

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The Smartest Guys in the Room

Author : Bethany McLean,Peter Elkind
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 480 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2013-11-26
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780698158825

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The Smartest Guys in the Room by Bethany McLean,Peter Elkind Pdf

There were dozens of books about Watergate, but only All the President's Men gave readers the full story, with all the drama and nuance and exclusive reporting. And thirty years later, if you're going to read only one book on Watergate, that's still the one. Today, Enron is the biggest business story of our time, and Fortune senior writers Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind are the new Woodward and Bernstein. Remarkably, it was just two years ago that Enron was thought to epitomize a great New Economy company, with its skyrocketing profits and share price. But that was before Fortune published an article by McLean that asked a seemingly innocent question: How exactly does Enron make money? From that point on, Enron's house of cards began to crumble. Now, McLean and Elkind have investigated much deeper, to offer the definitive book about the Enron scandal and the fascinating people behind it. Meticulously researched and character driven, Smartest Guys in the Room takes the reader deep into Enron's past—and behind the closed doors of private meetings. Drawing on a wide range of unique sources, the book follows Enron's rise from obscurity to the top of the business world to its disastrous demise. It reveals as never before major characters such as Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and Andy Fastow, as well as lesser known players like Cliff Baxter and Rebecca Mark. Smartest Guys in the Room is a story of greed, arrogance, and deceit—a microcosm of all that is wrong with American business today. Above all, it's a fascinating human drama that will prove to be the authoritative account of the Enron scandal.

The Smartest Guys in the Room

Author : Bethany McLean,Peter Elkind
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 480 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2013-10-31
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780241968673

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The Smartest Guys in the Room by Bethany McLean,Peter Elkind Pdf

What went wrong with American business at the end of the 20th century? Until the spring of 2001, Enron epitomized the triumph of the New Economy. Feared by rivals, worshipped by investors, Enron seemingly could do no wrong. Its profits rose every year; its stock price surged ever upward; its leaders were hailed as visionaries. Then a young Fortune writer, Bethany McLean, wrote an article posing a simple question - how, exactly, does Enron make its money? Within a year Enron was facing humiliation and bankruptcy, the largest in US history, which caused Americans to lose faith in a system that rewarded top insiders with millions of dollars, while small investors lost everything. It was revealed that Enron was a company whose business was an illusion, an illusion that Wall Street was willing to accept even though they knew what the real truth was. This book - fully updated for the paperback - tells the extraordinary story of Enron's fall.

The Death Shift

Author : Peter Elkind
Publisher : Diversion Books
Page : 488 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2021-11-16
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 9781682301586

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The Death Shift by Peter Elkind Pdf

The true story of a killer nurse whose crimes were hidden by a hospital for years. It’s 1980, and Genene Jones is working the 3 to 11 PM shift in the pediatric ICU in San Antonio's county hospital. As the weeks go by, infants under her care begin experiencing unexpected complications—and dying—in alarming numbers, prompting rumors that there is a murderer among the staff. Her eight-hour shift would come to be called “the death shift.” This strange epidemic would continue unabated for more than a year, before Jones is quietly sent off—with a good recommendation—to a rural pediatric clinic. There, eight children under her care mysteriously stopped breathing—and a 15-month-old baby girl died. In May 1984, Jones was finally arrested, leading to a trial that revealed not only her deeply disturbed mind and a willingness to kill, but a desire to play “God” with the lives of the children under her care. More shocking still was that the hospital had shredded records and remained silent about Jones’ horrific deeds, obscuring the full extent of her spree and prompting grieving parents to ask: Why? Elkind chronicles Jones’ rampage, her trials, and the chilling aftermath of one of the most horrific crimes in America, and turns his piercing gaze onto those responsible for its cover-up. It is a tale with special relevance today, as prosecutors, distraught parents, and victims’ advocates struggle to keep Jones behind bars. “A horrifying true-life medical thriller...”—Publishers Weekly “Gripping...A remarkable journalistic achievement!”—Newsweek “Murder, madness, and medicine...superb!”—Library Journal “Shocking...true crime reporting at its most compelling.”—Booklist

Conspiracy of Fools

Author : Kurt Eichenwald
Publisher : Crown
Page : 1258 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2005-03-14
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780767911801

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Conspiracy of Fools by Kurt Eichenwald Pdf

From an award-winning New York Times reporter comes the full, mind-boggling true story of the lies, crimes, and ineptitude behind the Enron scandal that imperiled a presidency, destroyed a marketplace, and changed Washington and Wall Street forever. It was the corporate collapse that appeared to come out of nowhere. In late 2001, the Enron Corporation—a darling of the financial world, a company whose executives were friends of presidents and the powerful—imploded virtually overnight, leaving vast wreckage in its wake and sparking a criminal investigation that would last for years. Kurt Eichenwald transforms the unbelievable story of the Enron scandal into a rip-roaring narrative of epic proportions, taking readers behind every closed door—from the Oval Office to the executive suites, from the highest reaches of the Justice Department to the homes and bedrooms of the top officers. It is a tale of global reach—from Houston to Washington, from Bombay to London, from Munich to Sao Paolo—laying out the unbelievable scenes that twisted together to create this shocking true story. Eichenwald reveals never-disclosed details of a story that features a cast including George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul O’Neill, Harvey Pitt, Colin Powell, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alan Greenspan, Ken Lay, Andy Fastow, Jeff Skilling, Bill Clinton, Rupert Murdoch and Sumner Redstone. With its you-are-there glimpse into the secretive worlds of corporate power, Conspiracy of Fools is an all-true financial and political thriller of cinematic proportions.

All the Devils Are Here

Author : Bethany McLean,Joe Nocera
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2011-08-30
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781101551059

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All the Devils Are Here by Bethany McLean,Joe Nocera Pdf

"Hell is empty, and all the devils are here." -Shakespeare, The Tempest As soon as the financial crisis erupted, the finger-pointing began. Should the blame fall on Wall Street, Main Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue? On greedy traders, misguided regulators, sleazy subprime companies, cowardly legislators, or clueless home buyers? According to Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, two of America's most acclaimed business journalists, the real answer is all of the above-and more. Many devils helped bring hell to the economy. And the full story, in all of its complexity and detail, is like the legend of the blind men and the elephant. Almost everyone has missed the big picture. Almost no one has put all the pieces together. All the Devils Are Here goes back several decades to weave the hidden history of the financial crisis in a way no previous book has done. It explores the motivations of everyone from famous CEOs, cabinet secretaries, and politicians to anonymous lenders, borrowers, analysts, and Wall Street traders. It delves into the powerful American mythology of homeownership. And it proves that the crisis ultimately wasn't about finance at all; it was about human nature. Among the devils you'll meet in vivid detail: • Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide, who dreamed of spreading homeownership to the masses, only to succumb to the peer pressure-and the outsized profits-of the sleaziest subprime lending. • Roland Arnall, a respected philanthropist and diplomat, who made his fortune building Ameriquest, a subprime lending empire that relied on blatantly deceptive lending practices. • Hank Greenberg, who built AIG into a Rube Goldberg contraption with an undeserved triple-A rating, and who ran it so tightly that he was the only one who knew where all the bodies were buried. • Stan O'Neal of Merrill Lynch, aloof and suspicious, who suffered from "Goldman envy" and drove a proud old firm into the ground by promoting cronies and pushing out his smartest lieutenants. • Lloyd Blankfein, who helped turn Goldman Sachs from a culture that famously put clients first to one that made clients secondary to its own bottom line. • Franklin Raines of Fannie Mae, who (like his predecessors) bullied regulators into submission and let his firm drift away from its original, noble mission. • Brian Clarkson of Moody's, who aggressively pushed to increase his rating agency's market share and stock price, at the cost of its integrity. • Alan Greenspan, the legendary maestro of the Federal Reserve, who ignored the evidence of a growing housing bubble and turned a blind eye to the lending practices that ultimately brought down Wall Street-and inflicted enormous pain on the country. Just as McLean's The Smartest Guys in the Room was hailed as the best Enron book on a crowded shelf, so will All the Devils Are Here be remembered for finally making sense of the meltdown and its consequences.

Power Failure

Author : Mimi Swartz,Sherron Watkins
Publisher : Currency
Page : 434 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2004-03-09
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780767913683

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Power Failure by Mimi Swartz,Sherron Watkins Pdf

“They’re still trying to hide the weenie,” thought Sherron Watkins as she read a newspaper clipping about Enron two weeks before Christmas, 2001. . . It quoted [CFO] Jeff McMahon addressing the company’s creditors and cautioning them against a rash judgment. “Don’t assume that there is a smoking gun.” Sherron knew Enron well enough to know that the company was in extreme spin mode… Power Failure is the electrifying behind-the-scenes story of the collapse of Enron, the high-flying gas and energy company touted as the poster child of the New Economy that, in its hubris, had aspired to be “The World’s Leading Company,” and had briefly been the seventh largest corporation in America. Written by prizewinning journalist Mimi Swartz, and substantially based on the never-before-published revelations of former Enron vice-president Sherron Watkins, as well as hundreds of other interviews, Power Failure shows the human face beyond the greed, arrogance, and raw ambition that fueled the company’s meteoric rise in the late 1990s. At the dawn of the new century, Ken Lay’s and Jeff Skilling's faces graced the covers of business magazines, and Enron’s money oiled the political machinery behind George W. Bush’s election campaign. But as Wall Street analysts sang Enron’s praises, and its stock spiraled dizzyingly into the stratosphere, the company’s leaders were madly scrambling to manufacture illusory profits, hide its ballooning debt, and bully Wall Street into buying its fictional accounting and off-balance-sheet investment vehicles. The story of Enron’s fall is a morality tale writ large, performed on a stage with an unforgettable array of props and side plots, from parking lots overflowing with Boxsters and BMWs to hot-house office affairs and executive tantrums. Among the cast of characters Mimi Swartz and Sherron Watkins observe with shrewd Texas eyes and an insider’s perspective are: CEO Ken Lay, Enron’s “outside face,” who was more interested in playing diplomat and paving the road to a political career than in managing Enron’s high-testosterone, anything-goes culture; Jeff Skilling, the mastermind behind Enron’s mercenary trading culture, who transformed himself from a nerdy executive into the personification of millennial cool; Rebecca Mark, the savvy and seductive head of Enron’s international division, who was Skilling’s sole rival to take over the company; and Andy Fastow, whose childish pranks early in his career gave way to something far more destructive. Desperate to be a player in Enron’s deal-making, trader-oriented culture, Fastow transformed Enron’s finance department into a “profit center,” creating a honeycomb of financial entities to bolster Enron’s “profits,” while diverting tens of millions of dollars into his own pockets An unprecedented chronicle of Enron’s shocking collapse, Power Failure should take its place alongside the classics of previous decades – Barbarians at the Gate and Liar’s Poker – as one of the cautionary tales of our times.

The Smartest Person in the Room

Author : Christian Espinosa
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2021-01-15
Category : Computers
ISBN : 1544516223

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The Smartest Person in the Room by Christian Espinosa Pdf

Cyberattack-an ominous word that strikes fear in the hearts of nearly everyone, especially business owners, CEOs, and executives. With cyberattacks resulting in often devastating results, it's no wonder executives hire the best and brightest of the IT world for protection. But are you doing enough? Do you understand your risks? What if the brightest aren't always the best choice for your company?  In The Smartest Person in the Room, Christian Espinosa shows you how to leverage your company's smartest minds to your benefit and theirs. Learn from Christian's own journey from cybersecurity engineer to company CEO. He describes why a high IQ is a lost superpower when effective communication, true intelligence, and self-confidence are not embraced. With his seven-step methodology and stories from the field, Christian helps you develop your team's technical minds so they become better humans and strong leaders who excel in every role. This book provides you with an enlightening perspective of how to turn your biggest unknown weakness into your strongest defense.

The Smartest Kids in the World

Author : Amanda Ripley
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2014-07-29
Category : Education
ISBN : 9781451654431

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The Smartest Kids in the World by Amanda Ripley Pdf

Following three teenagers who chose to spend one school year living in Finland, South Korea, and Poland, a literary journalist recounts how attitudes, parenting, and rigorous teaching have revolutionized these countries' education results.

Impersonations

Author : Sheryl Hamilton
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
Page : 301 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2013-06-17
Category : Law
ISBN : 9781442669642

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Impersonations by Sheryl Hamilton Pdf

Personhood is considered at once a sign of legal-political status and of socio-cultural agency, synonymous with the rational individual, subject, or citizen. Yet, in an era of life-extending technologies, genetic engineering, corporate social responsibility, and smart technology, the definition of the person is neither benign nor uncontested. Boundaries that previously worked to secure our place in the social order are blurring as never before. What does it mean, then, to be a person in the twenty-first century? In Impersonations, Sheryl N. Hamilton uses five different kinds of persons - corporations, women, clones, computers, and celebrities - to discuss the instability of the concept of personhood and to examine some of the ways in which broader social anxieties are expressed in these case studies. She suggests that our investment in personhood is greater now than it has been for years, and that our ongoing struggle to define the term is evident in law and popular culture. Using a cultural studies of law approach, the author examines important issues such as whether the person is a gender-neutral concept based on individual rights, the relationship between personhood and the body, and whether persons can be property. Impersonations is a highly original study that brings together legal, philosophical, and cultural expressions of personhood to enliven current debates about our place in the world.

Enron

Author : Lucy Prebble
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2016-01-28
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781472511409

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Enron by Lucy Prebble Pdf

The only difference between me and the people judging me is they weren't smart enough to do what we did. One of the most infamous scandals in financial history becomes a theatrical epic. At once a case study and an allegory, the play charts the notorious rise and fall of Enron and its founding partners Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, who became 'the most vilified figure from the financial scandal of the century.' This Student Edition features expert and helpful annotation, including a scene-by-scene summary, a detailed commentary on the dramatic, social and political context, and on the themes, characters, language and structure of the play, as well as a list of suggested reading and questions for further study and a review of performance history. Mixing classical tragedy with savage comedy, Enron follows a group of flawed men and women in a narrative of greed and loss which reviews the tumultuous 1990s and casts a new light on the financial turmoil in which the world finds itself in 2009. The play was Lucy Prebble's first work for the stage since her debut work The Sugar Syndrome, winner of the George Devine and Critic's Circle Awards for Most Promising New Playwright. Produced by Headlong, Enron premiered at Chichester's Minerva Theatre on 11 July 2009 and opened at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September, before transferring to London's West End and to Broadway in 2010.

Pipe Dreams

Author : Robert Bryce
Publisher : PublicAffairs
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2004-01-08
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1586482017

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Pipe Dreams by Robert Bryce Pdf

After the shocking collapse of Enron in fall, 2001 came an equally shocking series of disclosures about how America's seventh-largest company had destroyed itself. There were unethical deals, offshore accounts, and accounting irregularities. There were Wall Street analysts who seemed to have been asleep on the job. There were the lies top executives told so that they could line their own pockets while workers and shareholders lost billions. But after all these disclosures, the question remains: Why? Why did a thriving, innovative company with rock-solid cash flow and reliable earnings suddenly flame out in a maelstrom of corruption, fraud and skulduggery? The answer, Texas business journalist Robert Bryce reveals in this incisive and entertaining book, is that bad business practices begin with human beings. Pipe Dreams traces Enron's astounding transformation from a small regional gas pipeline company into an energy Goliath...and then tracks step-by-step, business decision by business decision, extra-marital affair by extra-marital affair, how, when and why the culture of Enron began to go rotten, and who was responsible. The story of Enron's fall isn't just a story about accounting procedures; it's a story about people. Bryce tells that story with all the personality, passion, humor, and inside dope you'd hope for, and the result is an un-putdownable read in the tradition of Barbarians at the Gate and The Predators' Ball.

Hidden Financial Risk

Author : J. Edward Ketz
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 298 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2003-08-08
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780471468479

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Hidden Financial Risk by J. Edward Ketz Pdf

An insider's guide to understanding and eliminating accountingfraud How do these high-profile accounting scandals occur and what couldhave been done to prevent them. Hidden Financial Risk fills thatvoid by examining methods for off balance sheet accounting, with aparticular emphasis on special purpose entities (SPE), theaccounting ruse of choice at Enron and other beleaguered companies.J. Edward Ketz identifies the incentives for managers to deceiveinvestors and creditors about financial risk and also showsinvestors how to protect their investments in a world filled withaccounting and auditing frauds. J. Edward Ketz, PhD (State College, PA) is MBA Faculty Director andAssociate Professor of Accounting at Penn State's Smeal College ofBusiness. He has been cited in the press nearly 300 times sinceEnron's bankruptcy, including The New York Times, The Wall StreetJournal, and The Washington Post.. He has a regular column inAccounting Today.

Enron

Author : Loren Fox
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2004-01-30
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780471432203

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Enron by Loren Fox Pdf

"I'd say you were a carnival barker, except that wouldn't be fairtocarnival barkers. A carnie will at least tell you up front thathe's running a shell game. You, Mr. Lay, were running whatpurported to be the seventh largest corporation inAmerica."-Senator Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL) to Enron CEO Kenneth Lay,Senate Commerce Science & Transportation's Subcommittee,Hearing on Enron, 2/12/02 The speed of Enron's rise and fall is truly astonishing and perhapsthe single most important story of corporate failure in thetwenty-first century. In Enron investigative journalist Loren Foxpromises readers nothing short of the most compelling andinsightful investigation into Enron's meteoric ascent-regarded byWall Street and the media as the epitome of innovation-and itsspectacular fall from grace. In a lively and authoritative manner,Fox discusses how the biggest corporate bankruptcy in Americanbusiness history happened, why for so long no one (except for anenlightened few) saw it coming, and what its impact will be onfinancial markets, the U.S. economy, U.S. energy policy, and thepublic for years to come. With access to many company insiders,Fox's intriguing account of this corporate debacle also provides anoverview of the corporate culture and business model that led toEnron's high-flying success and disastrous failure. The story ofEnron is one that will reverberate in global financial and energymarkets as well as in criminal and civil courts for years to come.Rife with all the elements of a classic thriller-scandal, dishonestaccounting, personal greed, questionable campaign contributions,suicide-Enron captures the essence of a company that went too fartoo fast.

Iceland's Secret

Author : Jared Bibler
Publisher : Harriman House Limited
Page : 238 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2021-10-05
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780857199003

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Iceland's Secret by Jared Bibler Pdf

Born in Massachusetts, Jared Bibler relocated to Iceland in 2004 only to find himself in the middle of an unprecedented financial crisis a handful of years later. Personally wiped out and seeking to uncover the truth about a collapse that brought the pastoral country to its knees, he became the lead investigator into some of the largest financial crimes in the world. This work helped Iceland to famously become the only country to jail its bank CEOs in the wake of the 2008 crisis. But the real story behind that headline is far more complex — and sinister. A decade after the investigations, the story can be told at last and in full. The crisis, barely understood inside or outside of Iceland even today, is a cautionary tale for the world: an inside look at the high crimes that inevitably follow Wild West capitalism. With the next global financial meltdown just around the corner, this untold tale is as timely as ever.

What Went Wrong at Enron

Author : Peter C. Fusaro,Ross M. Miller
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2002-10-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780471423256

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What Went Wrong at Enron by Peter C. Fusaro,Ross M. Miller Pdf

An easy answer guide to the difficult questions surrounding Enron What Went Wrong at Enron explains the critical steps, transactions, and events that led to the demise of a company that was once considered one of the most innovative corporations in the United States. Energy risk management expert Peter Fusaro gets inside Enron and provides a coherent account of the who, why, where, and when of this corporate debacle, without sacrificing the complexity of what has happened. Enron has been front-page news for months, but confusion still remains about what actually happened. What Went Wrong at Enron is written for readers who find themselves wondering what exactly is an energy trading company, what was the sequence of events that caused the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history, and what does this all mean for me.